INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENTS AND EMERGING ENGINEERING RESEARCH, VOL 3, ISSUE 03 92

ISSN 2347-4289

Water Pollution Through Energy Sector

Lata Tripathi, A.K.Mishra, Anil Kumar Dubey, C.B.Tripathi

Research Scholar, Rajiv Gandhi Prodyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal, MP, India-462033

Professor & Head, Chemistry Deptt., Rajiv Gandhi ProdyogikiVishwavidyalaya, Bhopal, MP, India-462033
Principal Scientist, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, MP, India-462038
Senior Technical Officer, IGFRI, Jhansi, India-284003
lata_mudgal@yahoo.co.in, ak_mishra01@yahoo.co.in, dubey@ciae.res.in, cbtripathi@rediffmail.com

Abstract: Energy and water are valuable resources and are to a large extent, interdependent. Water is an integral element of energy resource
development and utilization. It is used in energy-resource extraction, refining & processing and transportation. There are different sources of water
pollution in which energy sector play major role. Due to population growth and economic development, demand of energy is increasing continuously
which ultimately affected the quality of water. Depending on the water quality needs for particular applications, freshwater supplies can be augmented
with degraded or brackish water. Water quantities available for use are dependent on the water qualities needed for each use. In a present energy
scenario, consumption of water in the electric sector could grow substantially, though increased demand for water would provide an incentive for
technologies that reduce water use, thus dampening the increase in water use. Technologies are available that can reduce water use in the electric
sector, including alternative cooling for thermoelectric power plants, wind power, and solar photovoltaics, but cost and economics, among other factors,
have limited deployment of these technologies Meanwhile, climate concerns and declines in groundwater levels suggest that less freshwater, not more,
may be available in the future.

Keywords: Energy, water pollution, energy scenario, ground water

1. Introduction for proper sanitation, commercial services, and the

Water is an essential source of all living organism after air,
which is in plenty on the earth and covers about 70% of
earth’s surface. The amount of water present on earth is
estimated at about 1.39 billion cubic kilometer, of which
only about 2.5% is fresh water. The other part i.e. 97.5% is
sea or brackish water unsuitable for human use [2]. The
amount of fresh water available to humankind is about 0.29
to 0.49 % of total surface water therefore its treatment and
recycling is very important [14]. With increased population
and urbanization, our demand for freshwater and energy
will continue to increase. International Energy Agency (IEA)
estimates show that by 2035, global energy consumption
will increase by 35%. In developing Asia, water used for
energy production will increase from 157 billion cubic meter
(bcm) in 2010 to 230 billion cubic meter (bcm) by 2035.
This is a very steep increase. As a finite resource, water is
a potentially binding constraint on enhancing energy
security in the region. Unless it is strategically conserved
and efficiently managed, increased use of energy leads to
increased emissions of greenhouse gases, which will
accelerate the negative impacts of global climate change.
These impacts are primarily water-related, as evident from
the growing frequency of extreme hydro-climate events,
such as cyclones, floods, and droughts. These in turn have
adverse social, economic, and environmental
consequences. Day to day the demand of electricity supply
and safe suitable water for drinking is going to be incises in
India. Environmental conditions play an important role in the
settlement, growth, distribution, reproduction and survival of
aquatic animals. It has a great impact on the life of
organisms with its different physical and chemical
properties [15]. Further, impacts resulting from global
climate change have added a new dimension to
management of emerging water crisis [11]. Elements of a
water crisis may put pressures on affected parties to obtain
more of a shared water resource, causing diplomatic
tension or outright conflict.11% of the global population, or
783 million people, are still without access to improved
sources of drinking water, which provides the catalyst for
potential for water disputes. Besides life, water is necessary
production of commercial goods. Thus numerous types of
parties can become implicated in a water dispute. For
example, corporate entities may pollute water resources
shared by a community, or governments may argue over
who gets access to a river used as an international or inter-
state boundary and due to overcome of water crisis there is
a proposal of interlinking of different rivers. Water is used
for agriculture, drinking, industries, laundry, recreation and
fisheries from different sources like lakes, ponds, rivers and
reservoirs. The industrial growth and consequent pollution
let into the fresh water bodies to clean themselves has
affected by the sheer quantity of waste generated by ever
increasing population [6,20]. Water is also an integral part
of electric-power generation. It is used directly in
hydroelectric generation and is also used extensively for
cooling and emissions scrubbing in thermoelectric
generation. However, as population has increased, demand
for energy and water has grown. Competing demands for
water supply are affecting the value and availability of the
resource [18].
2 Water Availability and Uses:
In India total availability of water from different resources
has been estimated to be about 1123 Billion Cubic Meter
(690 BCM from surface and 433 BCM from ground).About
85% (688 BCM) of water is used for irrigation (Figure 1),
which may increase to 1072 BCM by 2050. Major source for
irrigation is groundwater. Annual groundwater recharge is
about 433 BCM of which 212.5 BCM used for irrigation and
18.1 BCM for domestic and industrial use [1]. By 2025,
demand for domestic and industrial water usage may
increase to 29.2 BCM. Thus water availability for irrigation
is expected to reduce to 162.3 BCM. Due to increasing
population and increasing demand of water in energy
sector, the per capita average annual freshwater availability
has been reducing since 1951 from 5177 m3 to 1869 m3, in
2001 and 1588 m3, in 2010. It is expected to further reduce
to 1341 m3 in 2025 and 1140 m3 in 2050. [10]. Hence, it is
necessary to search the effective treatment option to
enhanced water use efficiency and waste water recycling.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENTS AND EMERGING ENGINEERING RESEARCH, VOL 3, ISSUE 03
ISSN 2347-4289
1200
Water demand in Billion Cubic
1000
800
Meter
600
400
200
0 high compared to the domestic requirement of water of a
water uses in different sectors
Figure 1: Projected water demand by different sectors
(CWC, 2010)5
Water demand is continuously increasing in different sector.
For irrigation and drinking purpose water demand is
increasing 1.2-1.4 folds whereas in industries it increases 2-
3 times but in energy sector its demand will be increasing 3-
8 times in coming year due to continuously energy demand
and establishment of different power plants in country.
3. Water Requirement through
Energy Sources
Mostly energy requirement is fulfilled by thermal power
plant, nuclear power plant and renewable energy based
power plant. According to CEA report November 2014 [7],
total installed capacity of power plant in the country stands
at 255.01 GW in which, Thermal power accounts for 69.5
%, Renewable energy accounts for 12.5% Nuclear 2% and
hydro holds a 16% percent share therefore thermal power
plant play major contribution in water pollution. Thermal
power plants that run on coal and other fossil fuels
introduce a myriad of chemicals for maintenance or
operational purposes, and through combustion, liberate
other chemicals from the fuel that wind up in the power
plant's discharge. Nuclear power plants consume even
more water than fossil fuel facilities because of the
additional cooling requirements of reactor cores and can
have major impacts on marine environments. By contrast,
Many renewable energy technologies such as wind and
solar photovoltaic technology produce electricity without
generating any waste effluent released into waterways or
without relying upon any cooling water.
Water consumption of different energy sources: (litres
per kilowatt-hour of electrical output)
Water consumption in litres per
Sources
kilowatt-hour of electrical output
Nuclear 2.5
Coal 1.9
Oil 1.6
Combined Cycle Gas 0.95
Solar PV 0.11
Wind 0.004
Source:http://www.foe.org.au/sites/default/files/Water-NP-2xA4-
2013.pdf[9]
93
3.1. In Thermal Power Plants
The current installed capacity of thermal power plants
(including coal, nuclear, oil/diesel) till November 2014
stands at around 177741.89 MW its share in electricity
Years generation is 69.5% [7].The water requirements for a coal-
based power plant is about 0.005-0.18 m3/kWh. At STPS,
2010 the water requirement has been marginally reduced from
about 0.18 m3/kWh to 0.15 m3/kWh after the installation of a
2025 treatment facility for the ash pond decant. Still the water
requirement of 0.15 m3/kWh per Unit of electricity is very
2050
big city. The high ash content in India's coal affects the
thermal power plant's potential emissions. Ash from power
plants directly affects the irrigation land and water sources
of nearby area [17].
3.2 In Nuclear Energy
Water for a nuclear power plant can be sourced from a
river, lake, dam, or the ocean. The water has two uses - it is
converted to steam to drive a turbine, and cooling water
converts the steam back to water. Nuclear power plants
consume large amounts of water – typically 13-24 billion
litres per year, or 35-65 million litres per day. Depending on
the cooling technology utilised, the water requirements for a
nuclear power station can vary between 20 to 83 per cent
more than for other power stations. A megawatt-hour
(MWh) of electricity from coal uses 20 to 270 litres of water
Different at the coal mining stage and an additional 1,200 to 2,000
litres when the energy in the coal is converted to electricity,
totalling 1,220 to 2,270 litres of water consumed per MWh.
In comparison, nuclear energy uses 170 to 570 litres of
water per MWh during the mining of uranium and
production of the reactor fuel and an additional 2,700 litres
per MWh as the energy from nuclear fission is converted to
electricity, for a total of 2,870 to 3,270 litres of water
consumed per MWh [19].
3.3 In Renewable Energy
Wind, hydro, solar, and biomass are the main sources of
renewable energy. Water requirements for renewable
electricity generating technologies range from negligible to
comparable with thermal generation using wet tower
cooling. Non-thermal renewables, such as wind and solar
photovoltaic (PV) may use very small amounts of water,
such as for cleaning or panel washing. Concentrating solar
thermal plants (CSP), like all thermal electric plants,
require water for cooling. Water use depends on the
plant design, plant location, and the type of cooling
system.CSP plants that use wet-recirculating technology
with cooling towers withdraw between 600 and 650
gallons of water per megawatt-hour of electricity
produced. Dry-cooling technology can reduce water use
at CSP plants by approximately 90 percent [13].
Hydropower is a major water user, relying on water passing
through turbines to generate electricity. Water is consumed
via seepage and evaporation from the reservoir created for
hydropower facilities. Factors determining the amount
consumed – climate, reservoir design and allocations to
other uses – are highly site-specific and variable[16].
Biomass power plants and coal power plants require
approximately the same amount of water for cooling,
amount of water withdrawals and consumption depends
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENTS AND EMERGING ENGINEERING RESEARCH, VOL 3, ISSUE 03 94
ISSN 2347-4289

on cooling facility’s technology. For biomass power
plants, water withdrawals range for cooling between
20,000 and 50,000 gallons per megawatt-hour with
consumption of 300 gallons per megawatt-hour. Biomass
facilities that use wet-recirculating cooling systems—
which reuse cooling water in a second cycle rather than
immediately discharging it—withdraw between 500 and
900 gallons per megawatt-hour and consume
approximately 480 gallons per megawatt-hour [12].
4. Interlinking between Water and Energy
Water is required to produce nearly all forms of energy. For
primary fuels, water is used in resource extraction, irrigation
of biofuels feedstock crops, fuel refining and processing,
and transport. In power generation, water provides cooling
and other process-related needs at thermal power plants;
hydropower facilities harness its movement for electricity
production [18]. The use of water in these energy sectors
adversely affects the quality of water by contamination. Use
of water in different energy sector for different purpose and
its effect on water quality is shown in table 2.

Table-2 Key uses of water for energy and potential water quality impacts [18]

Primary energy production Uses Potential water quality impact

 Drilling, well completion and
hydraulic fracturing
 Injection into the reservoir in
Contamination by tailings seepage,
secondary and enhanced oil
Oil and gas fracturing fluids, flow back or produced
recovery.
water (surface and groundwater)
 Oil sands mining and in-situ
recovery.
 Upgrading and refining into products
 Cutting and dust suppression in
mining and hauling.
Contamination by tailings seepage, mine
 Washing to improve coal quality.
Coal drainage or produced water (surface and
 Re-vegetation of surface mines.
groundwater).
 Long-distance transport via coal
slurry.
 Contamination by runoff containing
 Irrigation for feedstock crop growth.
fertilisers, pesticides and sediments
Biofuels  Wet milling, washing and cooling in
(surface and groundwater).
the fuel conversion process.
 Wastewater produced by refining.
Thermal pollution by cooling water
 Boiler feed, i.e. the water used to discharge (surface water).Impact on
generate steam or hot water. aquatic ecosystems.
Thermal (fossil fuel,
 Cooling for steam-condensing. Air emissions that pollute water downwind
nuclear and bioenergy)
 Pollutant scrubbing using emissions- (surface water).Discharge of boiler blow
control equipment. down, i.e. boiler feed that contains
suspended solids
 System fluids or boiler feed, i.e. the
.Thermal pollution by cooling water
Concentrating solar power water used to generate steam or
discharge (surface water).
and geothermal hot water.
Impact on aquatic ecosystems
 Cooling for steam-condensing
 Electricity generation.
 Alteration of water temperatures, flow
 Storage in a reservoir (for operating
Hydropower volume/timing and aquatic ecosystems.
hydro-electric dams or energy
 Evaporative losses from the reservoir
storage).

5. Effects of Power Plant Effluents
Energy is one of the major inputs for the economic
development of any country. In the case of the developing
countries like India, energy consumption has been
increasing at a relatively fast rate due to population growth
and economic development. Power plant also play major
role in water pollution. A typical 500-megawatt coal power
plant creates more than 125,000 tons of ash and 193,000
tons of sludge from the smokestack scrubber each year.
Generally, more than 75% of this waste is disposed of in
unlined, unmonitored onsite landfills and surface
impoundments. Toxic substances in the waste - including
arsenic, mercury, chromium, and cadmium can contaminate
drinking water supplies and damage vital human organs
and the nervous system. One study found that one out of
every 100 children who drink groundwater contaminated
with arsenic from coal power plant wastes were at risk of
developing cancer. In the case of hydroelectric plants water
environment is affected due to the stagnation of water in the
reservoir. If the reservoir accumulates runoff from
agricultural fields, the water may contain high amounts of
fertilizer and pesticide residues, which may accumulate in
the reservoir. Major pollutants due to coal based power
generation include sulfur dioxide, carbon and nitrogen
compounds, non-combustible hydrocarbons, heavy metals
and fly ash [3].

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENTS AND EMERGING ENGINEERING RESEARCH, VOL 3, ISSUE 03
ISSN 2347-4289
References:
6. How can overcome the problem of water
requirement
Waste water from electricity sector contributes to water
pollution. Thermal and nuclear power plant waste water
usually contains specific and readily identifiable chemical
compounds. During the last few years, the number of power
plant in India has grown rapidly. But water pollution is
concentrated within a few subsectors, mainly in the form of
toxic wastes and organic pollutants. Most major industries
have treatment facilities for industrial effluents. Only 60%
wastewater generated by industries is treated. In case of
small scale industries that may not afford cost of waste
water treatment plant, Common Effluent Treatment Plants
(CETP) has been set-up for cluster of small scale industries
[4]. The treatment methods adapted in these plants are
dissolved air floatation, dual media filter, activated carbon
filter, sand filtration and tank stabilization, flash mixer,
clariflocculator, secondary clarifiers and Sludge drying
beds, etc. But small-scale industries cannot afford
enormous investments in pollution control equipment as
their profit margin is very slender. Overall analysis of water
resources indicates that in coming years, there will be a
twin edged problem to deal with reduced fresh water
availability and increased wastewater generation due to
increased population and industrialization. Due to increase
demand of water in electricity generation, it is the challenge
to developed and developing nations for management and
recycling of waste water [11]. Therefore several
opportunities are available to improve the situation. In the
power sector, these include greater reliance on renewable
energy technologies that have minimal water requirements,
such as solar PV and wind; improving the efficiency of
power plants, for instance by shifting from subcritical coal to
supercritical coal or IGCC plants; and deployment of more
advanced cooling systems, including wet cooling towers,
and dry and hybrid cooling. In biofuels production, biomass
crops and locations that have the greatest water efficiency
will be advantaged. More generally, the energy sector can
look to exploit non-freshwater sources – saline water,
treated wastewater, storm water and produced water from
oil and gas operations – and adopt water re-use
technologies. Importantly, assigning precious water
resources a more appropriate economic value in regions
where it is underpriced or even free would encourage more
efficient use, not only in the energy sector but across the
economy.
7. Conclusion
There is no doubt that water is growing in importance as a
criterion for assessing the physical, economic and
environmental viability of energy projects. Water and
energy both are necessary for development and are
interlinked. Therefore better and cost effective technologies
of water treatment will need to recycle the waste water of
energy sector to reduce the availability of fresh water in this
sector so that both can be available to each.
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95
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